What is found in the North Pacific Gyre?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Also known as the Pacific trash vortex, the garbage patch is actually two distinct collections of debris bounded by the massive North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

What does the North Pacific Gyre look like?

The gyre has a clockwise circular pattern and is formed by four prevailing ocean currents: the North Pacific Current to the north, the California Current to the east, the North Equatorial Current to the south, and the Kuroshio Current to the west.

What is special about the North Pacific Gyre?

It is the site of an unusually intense collection of human-created marine debris, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Where is the Pacific gyre?

central North Pacific Ocean
The Great Pacific garbage patch (also Pacific trash vortex) is a garbage patch, a gyre of marine debris particles, in the central North Pacific Ocean. It is located roughly from 135°W to 155°W and 35°N to 42°N.

Which of the following describes the pattern of the North Atlantic gyre?

Which of the following describes the pattern of the North Atlantic gyre. The North Atlantic gyre rotates counterclockwise. You are on a ship and you notice that it took exactly 10 hours to sail from exactly 10 degrees north latitude to exactly 12 degrees north latitude.

What is gyre pattern?

In oceanography, a gyre (/ˈdʒaɪər/) is any large system of circulating ocean currents, particularly those involved with large wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity, horizontal friction and vertical friction determine the circulatory patterns from the wind stress curl (torque).

What is the temperature of the North Pacific Gyre?

Flows and temperature Average sea surface temperature along the NPC can range in the winter from 45-61°F (7.2-16.1°C) and in the summer months 64°F-74°F (17.8-23.3°C). As it flows from west to east, the latitudinal extent of the NPC increases such that it spans some 20 degrees of latitude east of the dateline.

How fast are the North Pacific Gyre?

The warm western boundary current are fast, deep and narrow: The Gulf Stream in the South Atlantic and Kuroshio in the North Pacific are 50-75 km across and can flow at speeds of up to 3-4 km per hour (1 m s-1), but can be as fast as 7 km per hour ( 2 m s-1).

Where is the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre?

At about 1000 – 1500 m, the Subtropical Gyre is located entirely in the western region of the North Pacific near the Kuroshio Current and Kuroshio Extension. In the subtropical regions, flow is weak where influences from the Subtropical Gyre are minimal.

Why do the north Pacific and North Atlantic gyres rotate clockwise?

to use up. one of the seven main land masses on Earth. the result of Earth’s rotation on weather patterns and ocean currents. The Coriolis effect makes storms swirl clockwise in the Southern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.

How is North Atlantic Gyre formed?

The North Atlantic gyre is formed by the North Equatorial Current flowing into the Gulf Stream along the east coast of the United States. The Gulf Stream merges into the North Atlantic Current to move water towards Europe, which then becomes the Canary Current as it moves south to join the North Equatorial Current.

What are the 5 major gyres?

Gyres are large systems of circulating ocean currents, kind of like slow-moving whirlpools. There are five gyres to be exact—the North Atlantic Gyre, the South Atlantic Gyre, the North Pacific Gyre, the South Pacific Gyre, and the Indian Ocean Gyre—that have a significant impact on the ocean.

What are different types of gyres?

Types of Gyres There are three major types of ocean gyres: tropical, subtropical, and subpolar. Subpolar gyres form in the polar regions of the planet. They sit beneath an area of low atmospheric pressure. Wind drives the currents in subpolar gyres away from coastal areas.

What plants grow in the Pacific Ocean?

There are five types of ocean plants: phytoplankton, red algae, kelp, seagrass, and sargassum.

How long does the North Pacific Gyre take to complete a circuit?

It takes about 54 months for water to travel the circuit of the North Pacific gyre, while only 14 months in the North Atlantic gyre.

Which direction do the North Pacific currents rotate?

…the movement known as the North Pacific Current. The surface waters of the Bering Sea circulate in a counterclockwise direction. The southward extension of the Kamchatka Current forms the cold Oya Current, which flows to the east of the Japanese island of Honshu to meet the warm Kuroshio waters in…

What is the direction of rotation of a gyre in the Northern Hemisphere?

In the Northern Hemisphere the gyres rotate to the right (clockwise), while in the Southern Hemisphere the gyres rotate to the left (counterclockwise). There are five major gyres in the oceans; the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Indian (Figure 9.1.

What is the North Pacific Gyre?

North Pacific Gyre. It is the largest ecosystem on Earth, located between the equator and 50° N latitude, and comprising 20 million square kilometers. The gyre has a clockwise circular pattern and is formed by four prevailing ocean currents: the North Pacific Current to the north, the California Current to the east,…

How much trash is created in the North Pacific Gyre?

Productions of plastics are constantly contributing to trash that is collected in the North Pacific Gyre. Green peace states that around 100 million tons of plastic are produced each year and that from that, about 10 percent ends up in the sea (Green Peace, 2014).

Is there net community production in the subtropical North Pacific Gyre?

“Net community production in the deep euphotic zone of the subtropical North Pacific gyre from glider surveys” (PDF). Limnology and Oceanography. 53 (5 Part 2): 2226–2236. doi: 10.4319/lo.2008.53.5_part_2.2226. Retrieved 11 November 2017.

What are the ocean currents in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre?

Ecosystem of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. This particular gyre covers most of the Pacific Ocean and comprises four prevailing ocean currents: the North Pacific Current to the north, the California Current to the east, the North Equatorial Current to the south, and the Kuroshio Current to the west.